Soon after the advent of the laser in 1960, one of the inventors (John Leonard Hughes) proposed its use in particle physics (Hughes, Nature 1963). However, the peak powers required to achieve such a goal in particle physics are very large (&gt;10.sup.15 watts) and an intensive effort has been underway since that time to adapt both solid state slab and fibre bundle based lasers for the generation of powerful laser beams (see Hughes U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,039,962 (1977) and 4,132,955 (1979)) and Hughes Laser Radar Patents (classified U.S., UK and Australia).
In this invention we have combined the advantages of rod and slab lasers with those of passive, phased-locked fibre bundles. The first of these hybrid lasers was operated by one of us (JLH) in 1986 in its simplest format when one million laser oscillators were fired simultaneously. The fibre technology of the invention would be significantly enhanced by the use of multicolored optical fibres which effectively reduce the cladding thickness relative to the diameter of the fibre cores leading to a higher degree of utilization of the rod and slab laser medium of the invention as well as a much more compact fibre bundle for a given output power.